The first day of school our professor introduced someone we didn’t know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being. She said, “Hi, handsome man. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?” I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.

  “Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids, and then retire and travel.”

   “No seriously,’ I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age. “I always dreamed of having college education and how I’m getting one!” she told me.

Over the course of the school year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled(尽情享受)in the attention bestowed(给予)upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. She leaned into the microphone and simply said, “we do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humour every day. You’ve got to have a dream, When you lose your dreams, you die. There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability.”

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

 

59. What qualities did Rose have according to the passage?

     A. Humourous and determined

     B. Critical and humourous

     C. Hard-working but indifferent

     D. Pretty but old

60. Why was Rose in college at such an age?

     A. To find a rich husband at such an age.

     B. To realize her dream of having college education.

     C. To further her education for a better job.

     D. To make more young friends.

6l. Rose once made a great speech.

     A. at the graduation ceremony.

     B. at a football banquet

     C. at an annual meeting

     D. at a baseball banquet

62. From what Rose said, we learn that

     A. everyone will end up growing older.

     B. we can’t stay young successfully.

     C. we can achieve much if we want to.

     D. dream is the key to success.

Writing being largely a self-taught occupation, texts on how to get about it ―though great in number― seldom are of much use.

You try, and fail. Then try again. Until at last, if you have some gift for it, the failures become less frequent, or at any rate less apparantly.

It is this ability to cover up one’s defects that is finally regarded as accomplishment or achievement.

Along the way there are the discouragements of unkind criticism, outright rejection, troublesome insecurity and irregular inability to meet debts.

It is uncommon, therefore, to come across a book containing advice of much practical value for anyone toying(漫不经心地考虑) with the dangerous idea of staring on a writing life.

A friend recently lent me such a book, however ― one I wish I’d had the luck to read years ago, and which I would recommend to any young person devoted to making a career of words. It is the autobiography (自传) of the English novelist Anthony Trollope, first published in 1883, the year after his death.

Needing some means to support himself, Trollope at age 19 worked as a junior clerk in the British postal service. He was at his desk at 5:30 each morning to write for three hours. And he remained in the mail service 33 years, long after reputation and prosperity had come to him.

Now, what of his advice in his works?

1. For safety’s sake, arm yourself with some other skills, some other line of work to fall back on(求助). That way, failure at writing, though the disappointment may appear, will not mean ruin.

2. Do not depend too much on inspiration. Writing is a craft, which Trollope compared to the craft of shoemaking. The shoemaker who has just turned out one pair of his work sets to work immediately on the next pair.

3. Have a story to tell, but, more important than that, people with characters who will speak and move as living creatures in the reader’s mind. Without memorable characters, story alone is nothing.

4. Meet your deadlines. Life is endlessly “painful and troublesome” for writers who can’t finish their work on time.

5. Do not be carried away by praise. And, above all, do not be injured by criticism.

6. Understand the risks of writing for a living. “The career, when successful, is pleasant enough certainly; but when unsuccessful, it is of all careers the most painful.”

 

63. This passage mainly discusses         .

A. the difficulties and risks of making a career of words

B. the uselessness of instructions contained in writing guidebooks

C. the autobiography of the 19th century English novelist Anthony Trollope

D. sound advice provided in Anthony. Trollope’s autobiography

64. From the context we can figure out that the underlined word “defect” in Paragraph 3 means         .

A. advantage                          B. fault                C. truth                      D. disadvantage

65. According to the author, writing         .

A. is basically a self-taught occupation and no instructions on how to deal with it are of any practical use

B. is a “trial and error” process and it does not count whether you have the gift for writing or not

C. for a living is the most pleasant of all careers, full of praise and enjoyment

D. sometimes provides good hopes of winning public praise and escaping poverty

66. From the passage we may infer that the author is most probably         .

A. an instructor of writing       B. a writer    C. an educator             D. a publisher

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